


Side by Side.

by reidbyers



Category: Criminal Minds (US TV)
Genre: F/M, Reader-Insert
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-17
Updated: 2018-02-17
Packaged: 2019-03-19 17:48:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,929
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13709535
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/reidbyers/pseuds/reidbyers
Summary: Being best friends with Spencer was the best thing in the world, especially for him since he’d never had one of those before. After one seemingly average plane ride home Spencer realised exactly how much you meant to him.





	Side by Side.

**Author's Note:**

> If you're reading this just after it's been posted then you've gotten this fic earlier than the followers on my Tumblr, you should go ahead and follow me there though as I try to alternate which platform gets fics first! My Tumblr is "sapphicpage"

While it certainly wasn’t the most comfortable place on earth, after a long day of work the plane could be mistaken for comfortable due to the exhaustion. When there was no bloody case files thrown about or discussion of motives behind a murder then yeah, it was a nice place to spend your hours while desperately waiting till you could get into your own bed.

A lot of the time the comfort depended on who you were seated next to, ideally if you wanted to sleep then the couch was the perfect place but it seemed to always be taken by the time you managed to climb in. Morgan always had music blaring through his headphones and while it didn’t disturb his sleep it affected yours, Rossi could go either way he was either talkative after having some whiskey or was asleep like the rest of you- except for Hotch of course who always had some paperwork to do.

Emily and JJ were quiet, more often than not Emily had something on her mind and would gaze out of the plane window trying to seek some solace and JJ would sleep, trying to make the journey go as quickly as it could so she could see her boys again. While none of them were particularly bad flyers, sitting next to Spencer would always be your favourite. On some wavelength you both seemed to know what the other wanted without sharing words, if you wanted peace and quiet and a chance to sleep then Spencer would get out his book and finish it by the time the plane landed, or if you wanted conversation then it would feel as though seconds went by before you were back home.

By the time that you were up and on the plane Spencer was already sat down, he always took the window seat when available for reasons you’d never asked him about. The seat next to him was free and sat in front of him on the other side of the table was Morgan, you already knew what kind of flight it was going to be because of the case you’d all worked on and so you didn’t bother starting up a conversation when you went and sat down. Spencer looked up at you from where he’d been rummaging around in his bag and smiled, a small one at that but a smile nonetheless.

There were other empty seats on the plane that you could have taken but whenever the opportunity was there to sit next to Spencer then you had to take it, even if it meant not sleeping because unlike the others you couldn’t fall asleep sitting up right. Before you could even attempt to start a conversation with Spencer he had started to read his book, eyes scanning the page at what to anyone else would look like a faked pace but you knew him well enough by now. You instead took your phone out and began busying yourself with games you’d only downloaded purposefully for said situation.

The plane took off without issue, everyone quiet and busying themselves with whatever ritual they had. You’d been around each other for a week straight surrounded by some pretty gruesome things so it was okay that for a few hours everyone retreated into their own little bubbles, there was no doubt in anyone’s minds that in a few days or weeks they would be back on that plane with the intentions of catching another bad guy. The silence was thick but not in an uncomfortable way, the shuffling of paper and faint music coming from Morgan’s headphones, it was almost comforting.

You weren’t sure how much time had passed before you dragged your eyes away from the screen, it left everything slightly fussy and took a few blinks for your surroundings to return to their usual appearance. A quick glance out the window revealed the clouds you were flying amongst, a sky a pink-coral colour like a ripe peach. At first flying every other week felt taunting but how else would you get views like this? Granted, that wasn’t the reason you were there but it was one hell of a bonus. You only looked away when from out of the corner of your eye you spotted Spencer’s head raise, his gaze turning to you.

Spencer was one of those rare people who could read a book and while taking all of the information in he could also think about other things. While this was often used to think about more topical things, philosophical debates and other such things today it was more mundane. No matter how hard he tried, for some reason he just couldn’t stop thinking about the smell of your shampoo. It had never been something he’d thought about in detail before but he could tell you changed it, from something more citrusy to now coconut, whafting his way whenever you reached up to fuss with your hair absentmindedly.

It might have been juvenile to say so but in more ways than one he considered you to be his best friend, he’d never had one especially during the time when it was more common to use such language. It was essentially the same as any other friend but closer, he felt as though he could be completely himself without having to filter how much he talked or change things about his personality that others might have needed before they could be friends. He’d never had a problem with it but now that he felt comfortable being his true authentic self, it was a change he never expected to feel. There was something else though, something bubbling under the surface he’d never manage to place a word on.

He gave a small smile before turning back to his book, waiting until he saw you go back to the game on your phone before carefully glancing up at you again. The word was on the tip of his tongue but he couldn’t go any further than that, what he did know was that his stomach fluttered whenever you spoke or looked over to him. For a while he just put that to being closer than others, some kind of admiration you had for a friend who you were so intimate with but without all the messy things of an actual relationship. Maybe that wasn’t the case though, Spencer could already picture what Morgan or JJ would say if he told them about this, they’d tell him that he liked you which wasn’t the case.

Still, being next to you felt so right. Like nothing could ever go wrong when in your presence, as if some spell had been cast to keep any harm away whenever you were so much in the same room. With a mother who read stories of romance and adventure to keep herself grounded when her mind began to crumble like a mausoleum, Spencer had been around writers who romanticized the world and the people around them with so much ease that it had to some degree slipped into the back of his mind. He was logical and based on facts, that was true but a side he had never showed another person was someone who could find the romance in the same things he applied to science.

You yawned and he looked up at you once more, taking in the details of how your hand curled around your mouth to shield it and how tightly your eyes scrunched up with the force of the yawn. Afterwards you clicked out of the game and locked your phone and by the time you’d shoved it back into your bag Spencer had returned his book, you didn’t even notice that he’d been admiring you. A few hours and you’d be home so despite having difficulty falling asleep sitting up at least you could rest your eyes for a little. After folding your arms over your chest and tucking your hands beneath your underarms you leant back and closed your eyes, desire from your body wanting to sleep heavy in your limbs and head. The best kind of sleep was always the kind where you didn’t have to walk into it, keep having to prompt your brain with nice scenarios to fall asleep to, when you could just close your eyes and it would take you in with open arms and a smile.

Spencer forced himself to focus on reading his book, another glance your way would look strange to anyone who had so happened to notice and the last thing he wanted was to be questioned. So he kept reading, allowing the words to be his only focus until a few minutes later he felt something against his shoulder. His instinct was to flinch away and then look but he fought against it and instead calmly glanced down. For the first time you had managed to fall asleep, your body falling loose and head tilting to one side until you eventually fell and Spencer’s shoulder was the first thing to stop you. It wasn’t enough to wake you up but it startled him, caught Morgan’s attention from across the table as well.

For once Spencer didn’t know what to say or do, his instinct was once again wrong when the first thought that popped into his mind was to wake you up. But why would he do that when you were so peaceful, everyone else had the opportunity to sleep without disturbance and he wasn’t about to be the reason you remained exhausted for the next few hours. So the other option was to just let you be, you weren’t hurting anyone and especially not him, if anything it made his heart swell just a little. It wasn’t until Morgan chuckled that Spencer finally managed to tear his eyes away from you.

“Look at that, he’s finally caught on.” Morgan smirked to himself while swiping through his music with a particular song in mind. Spencer knew exactly what he meant but didn’t reply, not quite ready to just blurt out what he was thinking when he himself didn’t know. He looked back down at you and felt those telltale butterflies in his stomach, the ones he had assumed were just normal and nothing to think that much about but what if they’d been trying to tell him something?

He loved hanging out with you more than anyone else, doing the most mundane things like reading or going and watching some movie he’d been raving about all week, he knew your coffee order off by heart and the details of the specific sandwich you ate every day for lunch. When you weren’t around it felt as though there was something missing, there of course was but it was deeper than just your presence, it was as though in someway you had become so connected in his routines and life that when you weren’t there everything felt slightly off. Those were just friends felt and did, at least that was what Spencer thought. Before now he’d never thought about things like kissing you but that was then, the present held a surprising amount of surprises.  
  
It was going to take longer than a plane ride for Spencer to come to term with his feelings and even longer to tell you but it was a start. You slept peacefully, unaware of anything going on around you and of how Spencer had finally realised that it was possible to remain best friends while also being something more, not better but something just as wonderful.


End file.
